Glory days looking a fair way off at Perth

It must be one of the most frustrating pastimes to support the team from the west.

If you look at the club's playing roster, while it might not be the strongest in the competition it still includes the likes of Shane Smeltz, William Gallas, Michael Thwaite and Sidnei, and plenty of young talent is also coming through.

The Glory should not be struggling near the bottom of the competition as Saturday's 3-1 win over Central Coast Mariners and last week's 2-1 win over the Jets proved.

But Perth fans will tell you that the one thing they can rely on is the team's unreliability.

Just when they believe things are on the improve, the club implodes as it did earlier this season with the fall out between coach Alistair Edwards and some senior players.

Admittedly the Glory has been hit by a number of injuries to key players such as Smeltz, Gallas and the now-retired Jacob Burns, but Perth should have the strength in depth to have handled that, and at least get close to a playoff spot.

Perth has certainly missed Gallas' experience as the Frenchman has played only 11 games this season.

Frankly the 'Gallas experiment', as I like to call it, has not worked and I cannot see him getting a contract next season.

Smeltz has also been sorely missed, with injuries keeping out for the majority of the season ... again.

He has missed the past four weeks with what he described in his newspaper column this week as "a minor tear in my left adductor".

It was interesting to read his comments about the lack of a strength and conditioning coach at the club, something that is staggering in this day and age.

It seems the problems run much deeper at the Glory than not having a permanent coach and until all those are ironed out then Perth will struggle on and off the pitch.